Sebastion County Quorum Court, officials discuss alternatives to jailing mentally ill

April 28--A team of officials discussed reducing the number of prisoners with mental illnesses at the Sebastian County Detention Center at the Sebastian County Quorum Court meeting Tuesday.

At the last Quorum Court meeting March 15, it was announced a team from Sebastian County would attend the Stepping Up Summit in Washington, D.C., from April 18-19 to learn how to reduce the number of inmates with mental illnesses at the detention center. The team included Sebastian County Judge David Hudson, Circuit Judge Anne Hendricks, Prosecutor Dan Shue, Western Arkansas Counseling and Guidance Center CEO Jim West and Sheriff Bill Hollenbeck. Sebastian County was one of 50 jurisdictions to be represented at the event.

At Tuesday's Quorum Court meeting, members from the team presented individual accounts on what they learned at the summit and the importance of applying these lessons to help Sebastian County.

"(One) thing we heard, which was shocking to me, was that, across the United States of America, 40 percent of the population in jails suffers from some mental illness," Hendricks said. "... It's a problem nationwide. The guys in south Florida have really worked hard at it. They've reduced their jail population by implementing a mental health court in Dade county. We heard lots of war stories, we heard lots of sad stories. ... Harvard educated people that become schizophrenic in their early 20s and they're on the street. This one guy graduated from Harvard and disappeared."

Hendricks said it is imperative for Shue to draft legislation to present to the Arkansas Legislature to reduce the number of people with mental illnesses in the Sebastian County jail. She said the goal would be, instead of arresting people with mental illnesses and putting them in jail, to find ways to get them the help they need. Hendricks also discussed the importance of obtaining data to determine what percentage of county inmates suffer from mental illnesses and training police officers how to determine if someone has a mental illness or not.

"This whole issue to me has been, 'what is our jail for?'" Hudson said. "Our jail is to incarcerate the dangerous and violent individuals ... and maintain public safety. Our challenge with this program is can we divert the non-dangerous, nonviolent to other options, either community service or mental health treatment. You could define an offense that could be a jail offense and put a fine on it. ... There's all kinds of options on that. The jail is over capacity right now. We cannot continue operating this jail over capacity. We need to do something to divert people from the jail and try to get it within its limits."

Shue reassured JPs that he and Hollenbeck would never compromise public safety to accomplish these goals.

The Quorum Court also discussed a draft ordinance to increase the county Emergency Medical Services (EMS) ambulance fee. According to Hudson in a memo, the fee is $18, the proceeds from which go directly to the EMS budget to offset operating costs. This service charge has also been in place since 1986 and an increase is necessary to accommodate the changes made to the EMS service since that time. This includes the increased level of paramedic EMS service provided to Sebastian County residents and increased operating costs.

"The county EMS service in 1986 consisted of one crew of six full-time EMTs licensed as a 1A Basic Ambulance service for 7-day, 24-hour coverage," the draft ordinance states. "The 1986 EMS budget was $188,278. ... In 2016, Sebastian County EMS is licensed as a Paramedic Ambulance service with two crews of 14 full-time paramedics providing service for 7-day, 24-hour coverage, operating with a fleet of four Advanced Life Support (ALS) ambulances. The 2016 EMS budget is $1,701,232, which includes replacement of one of the fleet of four ALS ambulances."

According to the draft ordinance, the amended rate would amount to a $25 increase in 2017 and an additional $25 increase in 2018, bringing the total rate to $68. The fee will continue to be collected on personal property tax statements for citizens living in the service area, which includes those living outside of Fort Smith and Barling.

After reading and discussing the draft ordinance, the Quorum Court voted to put it on the agenda for next month's meeting for further discussion.

The Sebastian County Quorum Court will next meet May 17.

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